Spaying/neutering your dog before the age of 6 months can help prevent cancer in your dog.

Puppies acquire a full mouth of permanent teeth between four and seven months old.

Small dogs live the longest. Toy breeds live up to 16 years or more. Larger dogs average is 7 – 12 years. Veterinary medicine have extended this estimate by about three years. However, some breeds, such as Tibetan terrier live as long as twenty years.

Eighty percent of dog owners buy their dog a present for holidays and birthdays. More than half of them sign letters and cards from themselves and their pets.

The dog name “Fido” is from Latin and means “fidelity.”

The U.S. has the highest dog population in the world.

Most pet owners (94 percent) say their pet makes them smile more than once a day.

Dogs are mentioned 14 times in the Bible.

It has been established that people who own pets live longer, have less stress, and have fewer heart attacks.

All dogs can be traced back 40 million years ago to a weasel-like animal called the Miacis which dwelled in trees and dens. The Miacis later evolved into the Tomarctus,a direct forbearer of the genus Canis, which includes the wolf and jackal as well as the dog.

Seventy percent of people sign their pet’s name on greeting cards and 58 percent include their pets infamily and holiday portraits, according to a survey done by the American Animal Hospital Association.

A dog’s whiskers are touch-sensitive hairs called vibrissae. They are found on the muzzle, above the eyes and below the jaws, and can actually sense tiny changes in airflow.

The origin of amputating a dog’s tail may go back to the Roman writer Lucius Columella’s (A.D. 4-70) assertion that tail docking prevented rabies.

Dogs can smell about 1,000 times better than humans. While humans have 5 million smell-detecting cells, dogs have more than 220 million. The part of the brain that interprets smell is also four times larger in dogs than in humans.

Awesome facts!!! I esp love the fact about why dogs don’t like rain. I know many people who wonder why that is, and now I can tell them the reason for it. 🙂 Some of these facts are also great for convincing parents to like dogs more (or to let you have one) :):):)